The premiere of "Aliens", the second theatrical feature film directed by Cameron, the sequel to "Alien", was held at the Avco Theater in Westwood District, Los Angeles.
The distributor, 20th Century Fox, seems to be having a little trouble. The premiere didn't have much star power, and even the TV reporters and newspaper reporters who reported it were smaller than Paramount's.
When Ronald came up, he first saw producer Gale Hurd.
"Thank you!" Gale was very grateful for the visit from his old friend. This premiere was all supported by his connections with Cameron's former friends.
"How is the finished film? I haven't seen it yet." Ronald asked quietly in Gale's ear.
"It won't be much worse than your movie at the box office." Although Gale was not very satisfied with the scale of the premiere, he was very confident about the quality of the movie.
"Oh yeah?" Ronald raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Are you so confident?"
"Yes, Jim's sequel has removed a lot of those disgusting aliens from the first episode and focused on the fighting spirit of women. The test results were very good."
"That's good, we can compare," Ronald said half-jokingly.
"You can talk to Jim then, he's waiting for Schwarzenegger."
"OK", Ronald himself was communicating with guests in the lobby of the premiere cinema.
I really have a lot of acquaintances, including the heroines of Cameron and Ronald's debut movie "Rock and Roll" at Roger Corman's New Century Pictures, Dai Young and PJ Soles.
It was a great time to get together with old friends. Ronald chatted with them about the past and laughed.
"Hello, Ronald", the laughter attracted Sigourney Weaver, the heroine of "Alien 2".
"Sigourney", Ronald greeted her with a hug.
Sigourney was wearing a backless red dress with spaghetti straps, and her dark brown hair was combed high, eye-catching.
Perhaps knowing that the new film was of excellent quality, Sigourney was in a good mood and immediately started chatting with Ronald.
Those old friends from B-movies consciously dispersed, making room for the current Hollywood celebrities to chat.
"This is my father, Pat Weaver." Sigourney chatted for a while, pulled over an old man, and introduced him to Ronald.
Pat Weaver was the president of NBC in the early years. In the 1950s, he transferred the program operation methods of commercial radio stations to television stations. It can be said that he determined the various styles of the American television industry today.
"Did you notice? There is no male lead in this movie. The heroine played by Sigourney takes away most of the responsibilities of the male protagonist in traditional adventure science fiction movies."
"You must be very proud."
Ronald chatted with Sigourney's father for a while. He found that the old man had really good vision and that Cameron's movie was very interesting.
"Ronnie", after a round of social partners, Cameron and Schwarzenegger came over together, and the three of them started chatting about the past of "Terminator".
Ronald noticed that Schwarzenegger, who did not continue to participate in bodybuilding competitions, seemed to have smaller muscles than before.
"Aha, you noticed." Schwarzenegger saw the meaning of Ronald's eyes, "I don't want to be a muscular action star all the time, so now I am weakening the audience's stereotype of me and trying some new roles.
Something that gives me more personality.”
Ronald was impressed by this muscular man with a thick Austrian accent. Unlike Stallone, who had to highlight his muscles in every role, Schwarzenegger began to try to quietly modify his star image early on, and also signed up for many acting training courses.
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"But you are the champion of the world's bodybuilding competition. It is difficult for the audience to forget your muscles on the screen, right?" Ronald looked at it a few more times, transforming the image in the minds of the audience, which is not particularly easy to do.
Yes, especially when Schwarzenegger appears like this and has a physique as wide as two people.
"I took some tricks and found a few supporting characters who are bigger than me in the new film, so that the audience will pay more attention to my acting skills."
"What movie is it?" Ronald looked at Cameron. He had a good relationship with Schwarzenegger.
"I didn't direct it. It's a black science fiction film, the runnin' man." Cameron indicated that he was not cooperating again.
"It's a very interesting script. In 2019, mankind is completely dominated by TV programs. They think that what is broadcast on TV must be true.
So those prisoners in prison were given an opportunity to go on TV and accept challenges from celebrities, and fight unarmed against hockey stars, police officers, and wrestling stars. As long as they survived to the end, they could be freed."
"2019? Running Man? Maybe humans won't watch TV at that time, right?" Ronald blurted out. He felt that the name of the movie was a bit familiar.
"Maybe, but we are still looking for a suitable heroine, who must have certain athletic ability and acting skills. Today's actresses often can only care about one thing."
"Hmm... do you have any height requirements for the actress?" Ronald heard that the heroine was still looking for her and asked quickly.
"Actually, she is the heroine, but she doesn't have many roles. There is no height requirement, and we don't have many scenes in the same frame. It's a distribution contract with Tristar..."
Schwarzenegger knew the elegant meaning of the song after hearing it, and quickly introduced the relevant circumstances of the movie.
"Thank you, I will find someone to clear it up."
"Female star, huh?" Cameron winked at Ronald.
"Haha..." Ronald hugged Cameron's shoulders, and the two entered the screening room arm in arm. This kind of thing is very common in Hollywood, and Ronald was not immune to it, trying to find a way to find a role for Diane.
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Gale didn't lie, Cameron did direct the sequel very well, even better than the original.
This is very difficult. In the history of Hollywood, there are only a few sequels to movies that are better than the original ones, namely "The Godfather Part II" and "Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back".
Cameron's additional difficulty is that he did not direct the first film.
However, Cameron's ability is extraordinary. He seemingly found a clue from the original movie and developed it into the plot of the sequel. Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) did an excellent job
He accomplished the feat of killing all kinds of aliens and rescuing the little girl.
Just like the title of Alien 2, the sequel changed the focus from a horror film about disgusting monsters to a victory song for female warriors. Multiple alien monsters were completely defeated by the heroine, and the audience was very disappointed.
It's comfortable.
"Wow wow wow..." Ronald and the audience applauded together.
After the premiere, Gale was in a very high mood. Everyone drank some champagne in the lounge and talked about the setting of the female protagonist.
Gale's best friend, Martha Coolidge, who is also a film director, constantly promotes the concept of women's films. In her eyes, female producers, female protagonists, and stories centered on women, it is obvious that this movie
No matter from which perspective, it can be called a women's film.
"No, I didn't ask for it, but Jim liked having such a strong female protagonist in the movie."
Gale laughed, and she quickly denied that it was not her influence.
"What do you think, Ronald?" Martha Coolidge turned to Ronald.
The two had some connection before. Ronald's second film "Night of the Comet" and her directorial debut "Valley Girl" were both released by Atlantic Pictures at the same time.
"I think it was Jim's idea, maybe to please Gail." Ronald's nonsense caused several female practitioners to laugh.
"To be honest, I'm preparing a movie with a female character as the leading role right now." Martha Coolidge brought the topic back to female-led movies.
"What movie is it?" Ronald asked with great interest. The next few movies he will direct and produce also happen to have women as the central characters.
"It's a movie script by John Hughes called 'Some Kind of Wonderful'. It's about a boy's best friend. The girl next door helps him pursue the girl of his dreams. Finally, after pursuing him, he finds himself
My favorite is the girl next door story.”
"Oh, he wrote the male version of 'Pretty in Pink' so quickly?" Ronald mentioned twice that the character setting of "Pretty in Pink" was wrong, and in the end it was discovered that the person next to him was the true love, and it should be a boy.
That's right.
"Do you also know about this movie? In fact, I think there is something wrong with Hughes' script. It is too romantic. I am going to adapt it into a movie with a more realistic color..."
Martha Coolidge said a lot of her thoughts.
Ronald frowned. Hughes stole his own ideas very quickly. I heard that he could write the first draft of a script in a few nights.
This story, which was originally supposed to be a romantic love story, now seems to have been changed beyond recognition by Coolidge.
Just at this time, Ronald's agent Niceta came to see him. He had made an appointment with the top management of 20th Century Fox. Ronald would meet with them next to test whether the other party was interested in "Dirty Dancing".
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"You guys go on, I have something to do and I'll leave first."
"Don't be a spoiler, Ronald. Today we should have a thorough discussion of women's films." Martha Coolidge still had her forthright temper.
Gale stood up and stopped her best friend. She said hello to Cameron and sent Ronald out herself.
"You're going to meet with 20th Century Fox to discuss a project?" Gale asked.
"Yes, would you like to take a look?" Ronald handed over the script.
The relationship between the two is good, and Gale is currently busy producing for her husband, so there is no conflict of interest.
Gale took Ronald's script and flipped through it casually.
"Your script is not good, right? Twentieth Century Fox's current boss, Barry Diller, is Jewish."
"You think so too?" Ronald remembered that Gale was also half-Jewish.
He and Niceta looked at each other. Could it be that their guess was right? Jews did not like the story of a beautiful girl of their own ethnicity being coaxed and abducted by a low-class Irish boy.
"No one will tell you this openly, I have encountered similar content before.
Jewish gangsters do bad things, Jewish girls are unruly, and Jews do immoral things. For this type of plot, studios with Jewish bosses will usually use other reasons to reject such scripts.
You have to go to non-Jewish studios, like Disney. Their founder, Walt, was always anti-Semitic."
Gale still identifies more with the Catholic education he received as a child. The two have a very good relationship and are not secretive about their conversations.
"Hey, it's a pity that I have a better relationship with the Jewish side in Disney."
"Then you can only try rice... No..." Gale suddenly remembered something.
Ronald also gave a wry smile, "Yes, MGM/United Artists, now the Jews are also taking over."
"Don't worry too much. This is just a rumor. And if your movie is really likely to be a hit, they won't care."
"I hope so." Ronald put away the script.
Weintraub and Katzenberg used stories from a female perspective as an excuse to say that the market is not big enough. In fact, it is not entirely an excuse. It is just that this kind of small production has a narrow target market and contains content that is not friendly to Jews.
They were unwilling to take the risk of losing their reputation in Jewish circles.